Conversations with Grace - Motives
by Mari217
Summary: A humorous conversation ensues when Steve & Catherine watch Grace while Danny's away for the night.


_McRolling right along... I hope everyone enjoys my latest conversation with Grace , with lots of McRoll.  
Hugs from NJ, Mari_

_#_

**_Motives_**

**Five-0 HQ**

Steve McGarrett approached his partner's office calling, "Hey, Danny? Want to bring Gracie over early tomorrow for..."

"Ahhh Shit." Danny Williams dropped his cell on the desk and looked up at Steve. "That was the school counselor."

Steve reached his best friend's side in three strides. "Why's the counselor calling? Is Gracie okay? Is someone bothering her?" Steve's posture changed and his hand unconsciously slid to his SIG, ready to spring to his niece's defense, or rescue, in a heartbeat.

Danny regarded his partner and the corner of his mouth turned up. "Stand down, SuperSEAL, no one's bothering Grace; you don't need to go in 'guns blazing.'" Danny joked, but his eyes reflected gratitude in the knowledge his best friend was so protective of his daughter. "There was a water main break; I picked it up on the scanner so I called them to check, everyone's dealing with it so the counselor happened to answer the phone. Since the school's on that pipeline, it's going to be closed tomorrow. I'm sorry, Steve, can you and Cath…"

"Can he and Cath … what?" They both looked up as Catherine walked into the office, hearing the tail end of Danny's sentence. She was ready to leave for the day and had her purse slung over her shoulder and a file folder in her hand.

"Maybe I should cancel." Danny ran a hand through his hair.

"Danny!" Catherine sat on the visitor's chair next to his desk. "You are _not_ cancelling; you've been talking about this all week."

"Then can you guys take Grace all day tomorrow, not just from when school lets out? I'm sorry, Cath" He turned to her "a water main break is affecting her school."

Steve perched on the edge of his partner's desk. "No problem. I was just going to ask if you wanted to drop her off in the morning, on your way to the airport. You could eat breakfast with us, then go catch your flight. We'd have driven her to school."

Steve was always happy to spend time with his niece. The fact that Grace and Catherine were thick as thieves made him preposterously happy, and watching them interact never failed to warm his heart, even when it included their ganging up on him and Danny during a game or in choosing some dreadful, girly movie he'd be forced to watch. "We're going to have her starting Friday afternoon, anyway; the rest of the day's no big deal."

Catherine agreed, "Steve's right. Gracie and I have the whole day planned for Saturday; we'll figure something out for tomorrow." She looked at Steve. "Won't we?"

"'Course we will." Steve could still read '_I shouldn't go_' in Danny's expression. "Go. Catch up with your friends. When are you going to have a chance to see a bunch of guys from the Newark PBA again?

Danny hesitated, and then agreed. "Ya know what? Okay. Grace will love spending the extra day with you. Thanks, guys." His former PBA was running a trip to Maui and Danny had planned for months to meet up with some old friends he'd known since his days in the Essex County Police Academy for the weekend. "If we don't catch a case you could bring her here. She'll play on her laptop, do homework in my office, whatever, but if you get a call, maybe Josie could come watch her…"

"Stop. It's fine. Tell you what. I can work from home tomorrow, right, Steve?" At Steve's nod, she continued, "I'm on the Tanaka case; it's all research at this point anyway. If we catch something else, they'll call me in and we'll work it out."

Danny grinned at his friends and stood up. "I emailed you a list of all the numbers. My hotel, in case my cell gets lost or dies; Rachel's cell, which you have, but just in case; and … you're really okay with this, right?""

"We're fine. Go get Gracie and take her to dinner, we'll see you in the morning." Catherine told him while pushing him out of his office door in front of her and Steve.

"Alright, but if you need…" Danny's voice faded as the trio walked down the hallway toward the exit.

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**Friday 6:30 a.m.**

"Bye, Danno, love you!" Grace called as she watched the Camaro pull out of Steve's driveway before she closed the door and turned around. "I can go to work with you guys, you don't have to stay home 'cause of me." She told Catherine.

"Grace, I have research to do for a case. I can do it from here and we can have a lunch on the beach later. As long as I can hear my phone, I'm good." Catherine explained.

"Okay, if you're sure." Grace looked skeptical. Actually, Steve thought, she looked like Danny with her brows knitted like that, as she turned to him. "It's really okay, Uncle Steve? I don't want some bad guy getting away or you getting hurt because you don't have enough backup!"

"You …" Steve placed his hand on her head. "…are most definitely your father's daughter. I'll be fine, no bad guys will get away and Uncle Chin and Aunty Kono have got my back. Besides, Catherine's looking forward to spending her break on the beach with you and I'll even take you both to Rainbow for dinner, how's that sound?"

"Awesome." She reached up and fist bumped him. "I'll go put my stuff in Mary's room." She grabbed her overnight bag and turned toward the stairs "Uncle Steve? Be careful, please?" She was smiling, but the gaze in her brown eyes gave her a serious look. Steve recognized it immediately; he'd seen it every day in the mirror as a kid - the look of a cop's child.

"Always, Gracie, always." He promised, and holstering his SIG, he walked to the door.

Catherine was at his heels. "Call me if we catch a case?" Steve nodded in response and she kissed him goodbye.

"Call me if you get a break on Tanaka." He walked to the truck as Catherine went to pull out the research materials for the case.

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**Friday 6:00 p.m.**

"Hey, Uncle Steve. Look, I'm working." Steve was greeted as he walked into the living room.

"On what, Gracie?" He regarded his niece who was sitting on the couch next to his girlfriend. They were sitting close together, hunched over in concentration as they poured over … blueprints? Steve couldn't hold back a smile.

"Catching a bad guy. Aunty Cath let me help." Grace reached up to hug Steve when he leant down to place a kiss on each of their heads and then she quickly went back to looking at the papers in front of her.

"Umm Cath…" Steve motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen.

"We'll be right back, Grace, you're doing a great job, but we can stop for tonight." She told the girl who nodded absently and continued to study the plans.

When they reached the kitchen Steve turned, "What's she doing, _really_?"

"She's looking at blueprints of Tanaka's compound, _really_. She actually spotted the hidden underground chamber without me pointing it out. She was so excited; she wanted to help me work, so I let her. I told her she could compare the new blue prints to the blues from the 1960s." At Steve's look she stopped. "What? It's nothing classified, and the names are all deleted … she's actually really good at assimilating information and extracting similarities, Steve."

"Of course she is. She's brilliant." Steve was actually beaming. "She looked like a mini-you in there." His eyes shown with pride in both the child he loved like she was his own and his girlfriend. "You know, Danny will kill us if she goes home saying she wants to join Five-0." He placed his hands on Catherine's hips. After so many long separations, he enjoyed being with her at work as well as at home and he'd missed her all day. "I don't think I said hello properly, did I?"

"You most definitely did not." Catherine draped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer as he bent to kiss her, but when he spotted Grace coming in from the living room, Steve shifted back slightly and placed a chaste kiss on Catherine's cheek.

He heard Catherine's stifled laugh at his embarrassment as she turned to Grace and said, "How about we clean up our work and go get some dinner?"

"Yea, I'm starving! Can we still go to Rainbow? Aunty Catherine and I already decided we're both gonna have the boneless chicken with gravy; I know what you'll get, the mahi mahi, right, Uncle Steve?" Grace launched into a Danny-esque litany "Now, I'm going to go pile all the work stuff up nice and neat okay?" Grace kept talking as she retreated to the living room, and then called back abruptly. "I'll just take a minute … and Uncle Steve?"

"Yeah, Gracie?" He called back, smiling at her very Danny-like monologue.

"You can kiss on the lips, I'm not a baby, you know." Her giggle wafted in from the other room. He felt Catherine smile against his mouth as he did just that.

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**7:50 p.m.  
McGarrett Residence**

After their dinner at Rainbow and a stop for ice cream where Steve let Grace indulge in the triple scoop sundae because, 'well, Cath, she asked so nicely'… the trio arrived back at Steve and Catherine's. "Can we watch a movie?" Grace looked between them as they entered the house.

"Aren't you tired, Gracie?" Steve asked, but Catherine knew he'd give in, even though he thought Grace would be wiped out after being up with Danny since 4:30 a.m. so he could make his flight. In addition, she'd talked on the phone and done homework with friends who were also off due to the school closing in the morning; had surfed at lunchtime for an hour or so with Catherine; and then 'helped' her work all afternoon.

"Nope." She grinned. "Can we make popcorn?"

"You just had ice cream… clearly you get your taste for snack food from your father."

"But we _always_ have popcorn when we watch a movie, Uncle Steve…"

"Tell you what," Catherine ran her hand over Grace's hair, knowing someone had to be the voice of reason, "we'll watch one show on demand. That'll take less time than a movie, and then you'll be in bed by nine. Maybe we can see a movie tomorrow, with popcorn, when you haven't eaten" She looked pointedly at Steve who didn't look the slightest bit guilty "_three_ scoops of ice cream. Deal?" She held out her hand.

"Deal." Grace grasped her hand and shook it while Steve gave Catherine an impressed look.

"Okay, take your shower and come back down, we'll watch a show. What do you want to watch?" Catherine sat on the leather sofa and pulled Steve down beside her, commenting, "_How_ is she not tired?"

Catherine had curled up next to Steve and grabbed the remote when Grace yelled "Vampire Diaries?" from the steps.

Steve placed his hand over Catherine's and took the remote. "Ya know what? No. Mary had it on over Thanksgiving weekend and it looked brutal."

He rolled his eyes at Catherine's '_really?'_ look and smirked. "For _Gracie_, Cath, brutal for _Gracie_, and someone was …" Steve lowered his voice conspiratorially "having sex … with a _vampire_, no less. No way _in_ _hell_ is Gracie watching that." He turned and yelled up the stairs, "Pick another show!"

Grace jumped down the last few steps laughing. "Knew you'd say no. Can I get a water?"

"Of course, it's in the refrigerator." Steve told her.

"Hey!" Grace called from the kitchen. "I have a question." Not giving either of them a chance to reply … clearly a Williams trait … Catherine grinned at the thought as Grace inquired "I know we can't watch vampires but I was thinking … if vampires are _dead_, how can they … make babies? They shouldn't be able to make babies, right?"

"Huh…?" Was Steve's stunned reply. Catherine was more amused by her boyfriend's horrified look than her niece's question, and she patted the spot next to her on the sofa.

"What makes you ask that? Did you see Twilight?"

"I saw one of them at a sleepover last Friday. Barb's sister and her friend had it on. She told us that in the last movie, the girl, Bella, has a baby with Edward and he's a vampire so he's like, dead. But the werewolf guy, he liked her, too and I liked him better, because he turns into an animal and all, but her boyfriend's, _dead,_ I mean why would she want to marry a _dead_ guy?"

"Gracie, do you really want to talk about Vampires at bedtime? What if you have bad dreams?" Catherine turned to face her.

"But I was just thinkin' about how they'd make a baby. Barb's older sister and her friend were saying how Vampires don't have body fluids and then when we asked exactly what they meant, they kind of remembered we were there and told us to go to bed so we didn't get an answer. So we were still wondering 'cause we just don't think they could. Anyway, since you're so good at research and all, I figured you'd know, or you could find out." Grace looked up and grabbed the throw from the back of the sofa, pulling it over her shoulders as she smiled at Catherine.

"'Ya know what, Grace; I have no idea, Hon. How about I get back to you on that?"

Grace took a breath and continued "Okay. When I asked Mom she just reminded me that I already _know_ how babies are made and did I have any new questions about it that weren't answered in that book she got me when I was nine. And Danno looked … well he looked exactly like Uncle Steve looks right now."

Steve appeared to be a little stricken and Catherine had reached for his hand and held it, because, frankly, she thought he might bolt after the words 'body fluids' left Grace's mouth. As it was, she was doing her damnedest to hold in the laughter that was bubbling up in her chest as she motioned for Grace to go on.

"… so I reminded _him_ that _no_, I don't have any questions about _humans_ having babies, and if I do, _yes_, I know I can ask him or mom, or you guys and then he said the vampire guy definitely had _motives_, like _all_ _boys_, and when he gets like that he starts asking about every boy in my class" Grace rolled her eyes at Catherine, who nodded in sympathy "and do I _like_ any of them, so I stopped asking."

Grace turned her eyes to Steve. "They don't, really, do they?"

Catherine could feel the tension rolling off Steve in waves and she squeezed his hand as he asked "Don't what, Gracie?"

"All have _motives_. Like Danno says. He's just being … Danno, right?"

Steve and Catherine answered simultaneously "Yes." and "No." and Grace giggled.

"Steve!"

"Catherine!"

"She needs to be careful. Yes, Gracie, a lot of guys have … uhh… motives."

"And there are plenty of nice guys, too Grace. You just need to be smart and not too trusting, but don't let Uncle Steve and Danno scare you too much, promise?" Catherine ran Grace's braid through her fingers.

"Actually, don't trust anyone before Danno and I check them out." Steve blew out a breath "And how did we get on this subject?" Steve's pained expression made Catherine smile "You don't have to worry about this for, like, years."

Steve picked up the water bottle Grace had placed on the table and just as he brought it to his lips she asked "How _old _were _you_?" and he choked. An eye-watering, gasping choke.

"Oh, God. Breathe through it, Sailor." Catherine patted his back. Knowing exactly what he'd thought Grace was asking, she smirked. "Gracie I went on my _first date_ at 16, we moved a lot and I was a late bloomer. _That's_ what you wanted to know, right, Sweetie?" She looked pointedly at Steve.

"Yeah." Grace nodded. "My mom was 15 but it was at a cotillion, so I don't know if that counts. What about you, Uncle Steve?"

Steve wiped his eyes. "Um, I was, uh, 14, Gracie, but it was a long time ago, things were different then, and we went out in a group, to a school rally, and we got home really early." Grace giggled.

Catherine looked at him with raised eyebrows. "…ahh and that was Jenny Feldman, right Steve? The nice young lady who enjoyed _movies_?"

"Cath…" he warned.

"What?" Her most innocent face firmly in place, Catherine planted a kiss on his cheek, turned to Grace and said "You have a while before you have to worry about first dates, Sweetie, and you can ask me and Aunty Kono whatever you want okay?"

Grace nodded happily. "Okay. Thanks."

"Now, let's pick a show, it's getting late." Catherine grabbed up the remote.

"How about a rerun of Happy Days? Danno and I watch that On Demand sometimes."

"Ohhh I had a huge crush on the Fonz!" Cath teased, chuckling at Steve's pained look as she navigated to the 'Classic TV' section while Grace settled back on the sofa, snuggling up to her. She looped an arm around the girl who tightened the throw around her shoulders but looked up at Steve's amused scoff. "What?"

"Nothing." Steve shook his head. "Just … nothing."

"Steve! What?" Catherine could see the patented grin forming at the corners of his mouth.

"Catherine '_4.0 GPA, Suma Cum Laude, Fast track to Lieutenant, star Athlete' _Rollins had a crush on _Fonzie_? The high school dropout who _clearly_ never saw a gym in his life?"

"I was eleven!" She defended "And he was cool, and cute, and he ate all his veggies, Mr. Know-it-all." Knowing Steve was partially teasing her for Grace's amusement she teased back, poking him in the ribs.

"That's not nice, Uncle Steve." Grace giggled "Ohhh. You're _jealous_!"

"Am not." Steve tried his best to look indignant and failed miserably.

"That's _so_ cute. Uncle Steeeeve's jealous." Grace said in a sing-song voice.

"I _am_ not. Besides, I'm cooler." He muttered.

"Ya know what, Aunty Cath? He is." Grace stage whispered.

"Yeah." Catherine laced her fingers through Steve's and gave his hand a squeeze. "I know." She winked at Grace, but didn't miss Steve's 'pleased-with-himself' grin.

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**8:45 p.m.**

"She's out, Steve." Catherine whispered. Grace was slumped against her, having lost her battle to stay awake to see the end of the episode.

"Okay, show over." Steve snatched up the remote and turned off the TV. "Gracie? C'mon, Sweetheart, let's get you to bed." He whispered, but the girl didn't budge. "Gracie?" He tried again with no luck. Finally, he simply scooped her up like she was completely weightless, and stood.

Steve placed his niece on Mary's bed, and Catherine tucked her in, placing a kiss on her forehead. As they turned away Grace whispered groggily, "Where am … wait, you _carried_ me?" and giggled "I would've walked, silly."

"In your sleep, maybe. We tried for _hours_ and _hours_ to wake you up …" Steve teased.

"You did not!" She laughed. "Aunty Cath, did he even try once?"

"Well, maybe twice." Catherine winked at her while she picked up the jeans that had fallen from the edge of the bed.

"'kay. G'night Aunty Cath, Uncle Steve."

"Good night Sweetheart, get some sleep you've had a long day." Steve hugged Grace and walked into the hall.

"But I'm awake now."

Catherine kissed Grace's cheek "Sleep, girly. We have a busy day planned."

"All right, thanks." Grace turned over and sank into the pillows as Catherine switched off the light.

After watching her breathing even out, she went to join Steve downstairs. "What did you find on Tanaka?" Steve asked as Catherine reached the bottom step.

"Here, let me show you…" Catherine sat down on the sofa, motioning for Steve to join her as she began to explain the information she'd garnered.

Two hours later, they called it a night, and after checking on a peacefully sleeping Grace, were soon asleep themselves.

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**Midnight**

As much as she enjoyed waking up to the feather-light kisses Steve was placing on the back of her neck and shoulder, Catherine stiffened almost as soon as she started to stir. "Steve?"

"Hmmm?" He mumbled, smiling against her skin. "You were expecting someone else?"

Huffing out a breath, Catherine rolled over to face him. Before he could pull her back into an embrace, she whispered, "Grace is here."

At the mention of Grace's name Steve sat bolt upright and Catherine couldn't help but laugh as his eyes frantically scanned the room. "Not here in the _room_, here in the _house_. Oh my _God_, you should see your face."

"Catherine! I thought she was in the _room_." He exhaled noisily and then relaxed against the headboard. "Since she's not…" He sank back down next to her, grinning eagerly. His hand slid across her stomach, but stilled when she didn't respond. "Cath?"

"Steve … we can't … Grace..." She whispered, steeling herself against his ministrations as his hand resumed its path.

Steve's lips barely touched hers as he spoke. "We can be quiet." He breathed against her mouth. "It's not like we've never had to be quiet …" When he moved to deepen the kiss Catherine stopped him with her fingers against his lips. "C'mon, Cath, what's the matter?"

"The _matter_ is, to quote your sister, '_old house, thin walls_'." Catherine could feel the blush rising again when she thought of how she'd first met Mary McGarrett.

"What?" Steve shook his head, trying to focus "Thin _what_?" Catherine could see the confusion flit cross his handsome features in the dim light.

She placed her palm against his cheek. "I told you about the first time I met Mary. What I didn't elaborate on was her telling me how she heard us … all night."

"No, she didn't … she was just messing with you…"

"Steve, she, um, _quoted_ me, okay?"

"She _what!_?" Steve pulled back slightly to look at her and Catherine could see him blanch at the thought of his sister not only hearing their nighttime activities, but commenting to Cath about them.

"Yeah, well, you know your sister. She was way cooler about it than I was, actually, but this …" She waved her hand between their lower bodies "… is not happening with Gracie in a room five feet away. So," She kissed him quickly "go to sleep." At Steve's resigned yet adorably pouty expression, she leaned back in so her lips grazed his ear. "And I'll make it up to you."

Steve's smile returned. "Promise?"

"Do you have _motives_, Commander?"

He pressed closer. "_Obviously_. But they'll keep."

"Good." Smiling to herself, Catherine placed another, softer kiss on Steve's lips and, with her head pillowed on his shoulder to sleep, muttered "Then I definitely promise."

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_ Thanks for reading_


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